His work focuses on changes in the news media, political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on American politics, journalism, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond.

In 2014, he won the Doris Graber Award for best book on political communication published in the last ten years, awarded by the American Political Science Association, for his Ground Wars. He is also recipient of the 2014 Tietgen Prize for his work on current changes in the news media.

He holds a BA and a MSc in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, a MA (with distinction) in Political Theory from the University of Essex, and a PhD (with distinction) in Communications from Columbia University.

Most of his research is broadly concerned with the intersection between old organizations and new technologies, and in particular with the various forms of civic engagement and popular participation that emerge and are enabled there and the institutions and institutional preconditions that underpin them and make them possible.

Dr Nielsen has taught courses on political communication, news media, and journalism at Oxford, and previously courses on European politics and international relations at Columbia University, the University of Copenhagen, and Roskilde University.

Levy, David A. L, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, eds. 2010. The Changing Business of Journalism and Its Implications for Democracy. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. 2013. “‘Frozen’ media subsidies during a time of media change: a comparative analysis of media policy drift in six western democracies.” Global Media and Communication 10 (2): 121-138.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, Frank Esser, and David A. L. Levy. 2013. “Comparative perspectives on the changing business of journalism and its implications for democracy.” International Journal of Press/Politics 18 (4): 383-391 (introduction to special issue).

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. 2012. “How newspapers began to blog: Recognizing the role of technologists in old media organizations’ development of new media technologies.” Information, Communication & Society 15 (6): 959–978.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. 2011. “Mundane internet tools, mobilizing practices, and the coproduction of citizenship in political campaigns.” New Media & Society 13 (5): 755 –771. (Nominated for the 2012 Kaid-Sanders Award given by the American Political Science Association for best article on political communication, winner of the 2010 Internet, Policy & Politics best paper award.)

Karpf, David, Daniel Kreiss, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2014. “A new era of field research in political communication?” In Challenging Communication Research: Selected Papers from the International Communication Association Annual Conference 2013, edited by Leah A. Lievrouw, 43-57. New York: Peter Lang.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. 2014. “Americanization revisited: Political journalism in the United States and Western Europe compared.” In Political Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Comparative Perspective, edited by Raymond Kuhn and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, 171-193. London: I.B.Tauris.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and Raymond Kuhn. 2014. “Political journalism in Western Europe: Change and continuity.” In Political Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Comparative Perspective, edited by Raymond Kuhn and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, 1-23. London: I.B.Tauris.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and David A. L. Levy. 2010. “The changing business of journalism and its implications for democracy.” In The Changing Business of Journalism and Its Implications for Democracy, edited by David A. L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, 3–15. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis and David A. L. Levy. 2010. “Which way for the business of journalism?” In The Changing Business of Journalism and Its Implications for Democracy, edited by David A. L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, 135–147. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.